Hugh Masekela

After a long fight with prostate cancer since 2008, the 78-year-old South African jazz, fusion and pop trumpeter, singer and composer Hugh Masekela died in Johannesburg on January 23, 2018.

He was born in the Kwa-Guqa (Zulu for “the Place of the Kneeling”) Township on April 4, 1939 as one of four children. His father (had) worked as a school principal, miner, health inspector and, in addition, was a noted sculptor. His mother was a social worker. He was largely raised by his grandmother, who ran an illegal bar for mine workers.

At the age of 14, Hugh Masekela watched the movie Young Man with a Horn. The 1950-film stars Kirk Douglas as the jazz musician Rick Martin. The story was based on Dorothy Baker’s novel of the same name, which was inspired by the life of the jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke. The movie in return inspired the young Hugh Masekela to pick up the trumpet.

From 1954 onwards, on recommendation of his schoolteacher, the British anti-apartheid activist and Anglican Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, Hugh Masekela was taught the trumpet by the leader of the Johannesburg Municipal Brass Band, Uncle Sauda. He played in the Huddleston Jazz Band and, because of his great talent, was offered a trumpet by Louis Armstrong in 1956 (according to some sources, this happened in 1954). He later played with the bandleader, song writer and alto saxophone player Zacks Nkosi as well as with several dance bands before joining the musical King Kong about the life of heavyweight boxer Ezekiel Dlamini, written by the South African jazz pianist, composer and journalist Todd Matshikiza.

With the always sold-out musical King Kong, Hugh Masekela toured South Africa and even performed in London. Part of the group was also Miriam Makeba. Later, she not only rose to worldwide fame as “Mama Africa”, the continent’s musical superstar, but she also became Hugh Masekela’s wife from 1964 to 1966.

In 1959, together with Dollar Brand (later known as Abdullah Ibrahim), Johnny Gertze, Makhaya Ntshoko, Jonas Gwangwa, Early Mabuza and Kippie Moeketsi, Hugh Masekela formed the bebop group Jazz Epistles, the continent’s first jazz band to record an LP in 1959, just before breaking up. Their one and only album was inspired by the bebop of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. According to music historian Gwen Ansell, it was already a cross between bebop and mbaqanga, mbaqanga being a form of South African township jive.

Following the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, Hugh Masekela left South Africa. His exile lasted three decades. Archbishop Trevor Huddleston and music friends such the classical violinist and conductor Yehudi Menuhin as well as the jazz composer, saxophone and clarinet player John Dankworth helped him. He was admitted into London’s Guildhall School of Music, before moving to the Manhattan School of Music in New York, where he studied classical trumpet from 1960 until 1964.

The actor and activist Harry Belafonte became a friend and early supporter who gave him the precious advice to “put some of that stuff from your home [South Africa] into what you do.”

From his idol Miles Davis he took the inspiration to constantly reinvent himself. Musically, the two jazz trumpeters are far apart.

In 1963, Hugh Masekela released his debut album Trumpet Africaine. By 1966, he already had his fifth studio album out, The Emancipation of Hugh Masekela, a mix of jazz, rock ‘n’ roll and African rhythms, with the cover showing the trumpeter and singer dressed up as Abraham Lincoln.

In 1964, together with Stewart Levine, a fellow student at the Manhattan School of Music and a lifelong friend and collaborator, Hugh Masekela had established the independent music label Chisa.

As mentioned above, from 1964 until 1966, Hugh Masekela was married to Miriam Makeba, from whom he had written musical arrangements during the early 1960s. During their time in the New York City area, they befriended their Englewood (New Jersey) neighbor Dizzy Gillespie as well other fellow musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles and Nina Simone; the political activists Makeba and Simone even performed together at Carnegie Hall. Other celebrity friends in the US included the film stars Marlon Brando and Lauren Bacall.

In 1966, he issued an album ironically entitled Americanisation of Ooga Booga, in which, according to music historian Gwen Ansell, he explored the creative possibilities of township bop.

In 1967, Hugh Masekela played the trumpet on the song “So You Want To Be A Rock’N’Roll Star” by the U.S. rock band The Byrds, which reached #29 on the Billboard Hot 100. The same year, he had another pop jazz hit with “Up, Up and Away”, a cover version of the song written by Jimmy Webb and a Top Ten hit for the U.S. pop group The 5th Dimension, which was released as a single as well as part of their debut album as the title track.

In 1967 still, Hugh Masekela was invited to perform at the legendary Monterey Pop Festival. He played just before The Byrds and the day before Ravi Shankar, another artist with an “exotic” background went on stage.

Hugh Masekela explored fusion with The Crusaders, rock with The Byrds and pop at the Monterey Pop festival.

In 1968, Hugh Masekela had a Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit with his instrumental “Grazing in the Grass”, which sold four million copies; sheet music including Masekela’s hit Grazing in the Grass. A vocal version of “Grazing in the Grass”, performed by The Friends of Distinction, with lyrics by the band member Harry Elston, entered the Billboard Top Ten pop and R&B charts the following year.

In the early 1970s, Hugh Masekela sought it was time to explore Africa and its music, obviously with the exception of his home country South Africa. He traveled through Guinea, Zaire, Liberia, Ghana and Nigeria. During the same period, he as addicted to alcohol and cocaine.

Nevertheless, in 1970, he released the album Reconstruction, in 1971 Hugh Masekela & The Union of South Africa and in 1972 the jazz and Afrobeat fusion album Home Is Where the Music Is. All under his own label Chisa, since major labels had no interest in a drug addicted musician, he told the music historian Gwen Ansell in 2017.

Hugh Masekela: Home Is Where The Music Is. Verve, 1972 Original Recording Remastered in 2008 (Amazon.com, Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de). Sheet music by Hugh Masekela, including his hit “Grazing in the Grass”.

In 1974, on the album I’m Not Afraid, recorded with West African and U.S. American musicians, he reflected on migrant labor in South Africa in his song “Stimela” (Zulu for Coal Train).

Still in 1974, together with Stewart Levine, he organized the Zaire 74 music festival in Kinshasa. It was set in context of the famous boxing event “The Rumble in the Jungle”, organized by Don King, opposing the undefeated heavyweight champion George Foreman and the former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali; Ali won the fight by knockout. The musicians and the colorful boxing promoter Don King did not get along well. Therefore, the recordings made in 1974 were only released in 2017.

In 1977, Hugh Masekela wrote the protest song “Soweto Blues”, regularly performed by his former wife Miriam Makeba and included in her 1977-album You told Your Mama Not to Worry. The song talks about the Soweto uprising in 1976 which ended in a bloody massacre organized by the apartheid regime.

From 1980 until 1984, with the help of Jive Records, Hugh Masekela set up a mobile recording studio in Botswana, directly at the South African border. The following year, he founded the Botswana International School of Music.

In 1984, Hugh Masekela released the album Techno Bush. Its single “Don’t Go Lose It Baby”, which reached #2 on the dance charts.

Although Hugh Masekela was not part of Paul Simon’s 1986 hit album Graceland (Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de), he subsequently was part of Paul Simon’s Graceland world tour, together with his former wife Miriam Makeba. As late as in 2014, for Masekela’s 75th birthday concert at Rose Theater, part of New York City’s Lincoln Center of the Performing Arts, Simon joined Masekela on stage where they performed You Can Call Me Al, including the train-whistle finale of Masekela’s song Stimela (Coal Train).

In 1987, Hugh Masekela wrote the anti-apartheid song “Mandela (Bring Him Back Home)”, asking for the release of Nelson Mandela. The following year, he played at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute Concert at London’s Wembley Stadium. Finally, in 1990, the South African President Frederik Willem de Klerk released Nelson Mandela — and Hugh Masekela’s three-decade-long exile ended and he returned to South Africa. In 1996 in the context of President Mandela’s UK visit, Hugh Masekela played for the South African leader and the Queen.

In 2004, together with the journalist D. Michael Cheers, he released his autobiography, Still Grazing: The Musical Journey of Hugh Masekela (Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de).

In 2009, he released the album Phola, including some songs written — but not finished — in the 1980. The following year, he was featured on ESPN in a series of ten videos which aired in context with the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

Hugh Masekela remained active until 2017, when he was forced to cancel shows in October. For instance in Johannesburg in 2016, he reunited the Jazz Epistles 60 years after their dissolution. The concert took place in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising.

According to the list found on Wikipedia, in total, during his long career, Hugh Mandela had issued 49 albums. He had shared the staged with icons such as Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Janis Joplin and Miriam Makeba.

In addition to Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela was also married to Chris Calloway, the daughter of the famous jazz singer Cab Calloway, as well as to Jabu Mbatha and Elinam Cofie. All marriages ended in divorce. Nevertheless, Hugh Masekela continued his musical collaboration with Miriam Makeba beyond their divorce.

Hugh Masekela is the father of U.S. TV host, singer, actor and sports commentator Selema “Sal” Masekela (*1971) as well as of Pula Twala, both children were fostered outside of wedlock. Sal’s mother is Jessie Marie Lapierre, Pula’s mother is Motshidisi Jennifer Ndamse.

Two of the four Masekela children are still alive: Hugh’s sisters Elaine and Barbara. During her professional career, the younger sister Barbara eventually rose to the position of head of the ANC’s department of arts and culture.

Hugh Masekela was nominated for a Grammy for his 1968 Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit “Grazing in the Grass” as well as in 1989 for “Sarafina! The Music of Liberation” and in 2012 for “Jabulani.”

Hugh Masekela: Grazing in the Grass: The Best of Hugh Masekela, CD 2008 (Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de). Sheet music by Hugh Masekela, including his hit “Grazing in the Grass”.

Article added on January 25, 2018 at 03:05 Riga time. Last update on January 26, 2018 at 18:44 Riga time.